Are You Smarter Than a Sixth-Generation Computer?

My latest article, “Are You Smarter Than a Sixth-Generation Computer?” leads off this month’s issue of The Futurist magazine. (Sept/Oct 2012) The article explores the need for a standard metric for AIs and is based on my paper, “Toward a Standard Metric of Machine Intelligence”, which I recently published in the World Future Review. The purpose of the article (and the paper) can be summed up as follows:

As our world becomes increasingly filled with technological intelligence, it will serve us well to know exactly how smart our machines are and in what ways. Given that we try to measure almost every other aspect of our world, it seems only prudent that we accurately measure the intelligence of our machines as well — especially since, by some projections, they’re expected to surpass us in the coming decades.

During the next few decades we’re going to see significant gains in the field of strong AI, potentially giving rise to artificial general intelligences (AGIs). Universal Intelligence tests such as those described here would seem a crucial tool as we prepare for the changes this will bring.